I met the Foonf! (and Crunchy!) Lots of pics!

Vera did a technician class (which really was Crunchy, myself, and two other technicians if you count the staff tech from the hospital) today and we got to meet the Foonf, it was pretty cool! I like it a lot more in person than I did before having just seen photos.

A couple things that stuck out to me, I can't remember what has been mentioned here before -

- 9 year expiration
- The minimum has been changed to: 14 pound, holding head unassisted, shoulders at the bottom harness position rather than 6 months.
- The RF lockoffs will NOT be the same as the Britax seats as they were originally, hooray!
- The headrest on the final production will be moved back some, so it's going to sit more flush with the back of the seat.
- ARB is required up to 12 months and always in Canada.
- RF tethering instead of using the ARB is a possible option.
- We talked about LATCH, especially in light of some of the new 65 pound LATCH rules and the fact that this seat is fairly heavy and the FF Rigid LATCH is such a huge feature and there wasn't really a solid answer yet. It would really suck to only be able to use LATCH to ~35 pounds of child though, we'll see.

Anyway, onto the pictures! We didn't have any kids to model, but we definitely got to play with some installation. It really sits a LOT lower than I thought it did. Even with the headrest fully extended for RF, it really only took up the same amount of space front to back AND height wise as my Radian with angle adjuster does.

These are all in my 98 Honda CRV.


Radian 65 with angle adjuster with Foonf on the other side






3-across with two Radians. This actually worked very nicely!


Radian - Foonf - Frontier 85, this totally worked too!!

And FF compared to the Frontier, both fully extended:


And here's some out of the car Radian v Foonf pics with the Foonf headrest fully extended:

Part of me really wants this seat but part of me knows that I should just go with a radian or frontier or both over time... :-/

soph's mom said:

Part of me really wants this seat but part of me knows that I should just go with a radian or frontier or both over time... :-/

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I dunno - it's really realistic that you could go RF all the way to booster in this seat. It's just that tall. I wasn't sold on it at all, but having seen it in person I'm pretty impressed.

I'm soooooo sad I couldn't go!!!! Looks like you had fun playing!

EmmaCPST said:

I dunno - it's really realistic that you could go RF all the way to booster in this seat. It's just that tall. I wasn't sold on it at all, but having seen it in person I'm pretty impressed.

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Ugh!!! Not helping lol! This is probably the closest thing we have to the Swedish seats... We are thinking about trying for #2 starting in January so then do I buy two??? How realistic is a three across with this thing in an average car?

soph's mom said:

Ugh!!! Not helping lol! This is probably the closest thing we have to the Swedish seats... We are thinking about trying for #2 starting in January so then do I buy two??? How realistic is a three across with this thing in an average car?

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I think it's pretty realistic, honestly. It's a well shaped design. Once they have actual production units instead of just a couple demo prototypes, I think we're going to start seeing some more real life three-across pictures from Clek, which should be really cool.

This picture is from their FB page and has an Oobr next to a Foonf in a new Honda CRV which is not a big car at all, there is really a lot of room still:

It's just so beautiful! I can't wait for our Foonf to arrive!

Is the plastic shell a smooth plastic or is it more textured. I'm just wondering how easy it will be to clean.

Thanks for posting Emma. It was nice to meet you, and it was a great way to earn a category 1 CEU.

I don't have many pics other than what Emma posted. Here are some next to a ff Radian. Keep in mind that my center seat is both slightly higher and farther forward than my outboard.

So, are the top slots higher or the same as the fr85?

Kel said:

So, are the top slots higher or the same as the fr85?

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They're 17.5-18"

Kel said:

So, are the top slots higher or the same as the fr85?

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Yeah side by side they look the same, but the Frontier seat pan sits about 2" lower, so the Frontier is still the tallest. I'm excited to see some older kids in the Foonf for sure though!

Oh man, it's beautiful! How cushy is it? We've got my 2 year old RF in a Radian XTSL and she has been having a lot of back pain from it. We've tried a lot of different things (none helping) and have been considering the Foonf if it's more padded and just more comfortable overall.

Just for reference, what is the average age kids are outgrowing the radians and how much time is estimated this seat will give us?

Kathryn said:

Oh man, it's beautiful! How cushy is it? We've got my 2 year old RF in a Radian XTSL and she has been having a lot of back pain from it. We've tried a lot of different things (none helping) and have been considering the Foonf if it's more padded and just more comfortable overall.

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I'm pretty sure she said it has the same memory foam stuff as the Oobr, with their whole "no numb bum" thing. I didn't really pay much attention to the back, but the seat pad looked pretty cushy!

soph's mom said:

Just for reference, what is the average age kids are outgrowing the radians and how much time is estimated this seat will give us?

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I would say 5-6, easily. 45 pounds is around the 50th percentile for a 6 year old, and with a good 4-5" taller than the Radian (and allowance to RF to 1" of the top of the headrest) I'm thinking most kids will have no problem whatsoever getting to 5. Rear facing, that is. Forward facing probably 6-7 with the 17-18" top slots.

OOOHHH! Now see, I have only ever seen the baby cack green one. This is pretty! I like it! I wonder if the rice point will drop once it is more readily available. When is it supposed to actually be 'available'? I know people can get one but I understand there is a pretty good waiting list right?

java said:

OOOHHH! Now see, I have only ever seen the baby cack green one. This is pretty! I like it! I wonder if the rice point will drop once it is more readily available. When is it supposed to actually be 'available'? I know people can get one but I understand there is a pretty good waiting list right?

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The last week of August - but Vera said all the pre-orders have sold out, so I'm not sure when they'll really be in stock, probably sometime this fall. She said they expect to be able to fill technician discounts around October so I'd guess the same for the general marketplace.

I like the pink and green ones. It just feels like I would be stuck with it forever. Like if something better or prettier came out, KWIM?

I think people IRL though tend to not like buying new seats every year, lol. I tend to get board easily and enjoy switching, changing colors, ect...

Although...I have been selling off my stash of seats. I'm trying to keep/buy only 3 across friendly. I've been considering a new RN for my 26 mo old. The FOONF would be a better 3 across seat for a bigger kid, instead of the FR85's.

So, I guess I'm still unsure, lol.

Kelley

Kel said:

I like the pink and green ones. It just feels like I would be stuck with it forever. Like if something better or prettier came out, KWIM?

I think people IRL though tend to not like buying new seats every year, lol. I tend to get board easily and enjoy switching, changing colors, ect...

Although...I have been selling off my stash of seats. I'm trying to keep/buy only 3 across friendly. I've been considering a new RN for my 26 mo old. The FOONF would be a better 3 across seat for a bigger kid, instead of the FR85's.

So, I guess I'm still unsure, lol.

Kelley

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They are going to offer spare covers like the Clek jackets they have for the Olli! They're going to be in the ~$100 price range though.

I'm still really worried about the head rest causing serious head slump...not that I plan on buying one, cause I'm not. I'm just saying it's something I don't think I'd get after my experience with the SK400 which has a similar head rest design.

KaysKidz said:

I'm still really worried about the head rest causing serious head slump...not that I plan on buying one, cause I'm not. I'm just saying it's something I don't think I'd get after my experience with the SK400 which has a similar head rest design.

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Vera said they got a LOT of feedback about that and it's going to be moved significantly backwards on the production model - it'll be interesting to see!